Sarwa Capital IPO flop sounds alarm for Egypt before US$6bil selling spree
CAIRO: A bleak debut for Sarwa Capital’s stock would have been bad enough but it may also be an omen for Egypt’s plans to raise over £100bil (US$6bil) in its state divestment drive.
The private investment firm plunged as much as 18.5% on its first day of trading, despite the hype surrounding its initial public offering (IPO) which raised about £2.2bil.
Sarwa recouped some losses to close down just over 11% at £6.54 on Monday.
With the volatility in global equity markets derailing IPOs from Spain to Hong Kong, the Egyptian government now faces an uphill battle if it moves ahead with plans to offer stakes in over 20 state-run firms.
The first sale could come within 10 days.
“It is likely that the government is only trying to sell the stakes because it wants to save its reputation, regardless of the cost,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK in London.
“We do not think it is the right time for the government to sell them, and launching them now could actually create some panic in the market.”
Delaying the programme that has the full backing of President AbdelFattah El-Sisi runs the risk of sending the wrong signal to investors at a key time.
Turmoil across emerging nations has caught Egypt in the midst of a sweeping economic overhaul, even as it grapples with weaker foreign appetite for its debt.
“The state needs to divest in order to assist the liability side of the government’s balance sheet,” said Stephen Bailey-Smith, senior economist and investment strategist at Global Evolution Funds AG in Denmark.
“If they postpone because they have second ideological thoughts, that would be taken badly.”
The government is looking to sell shares in four to five companies already this year in an effort to streamline the bloated public sector and turn around loss-making state enterprises.
It’s an extension of a broader economic reform program that started in November 2016 with the lifting of currency controls.
Given the unfavourable outlook and losses in Egypt’s benchmark stock index, even some officials are lowering expectations.
Public Enterprise Minister Hisham Tawfik held little back when discussing plans to offer additional shares in state-run monopoly Eastern Tobacco, saying “the government will lose with the price at which it will offer” the stake.
Still, Egypt is “committed to the timing of the offering between Oct 21-25,” despite preferring to pull off the deal when the market was on the rise, he was quoted as saying by the daily newspaper Youm7 this month.
Sarwa’s flop was a surprise after a recent IPO by Cairo Investment and Real Estate Development Co saw its shares surge over 17% .
Earlier equity sales this year also fared better.
The plunge in Sarwa’s shares was in sharp contrast with the interest among investors in the offering by the consumer and structured-finance provider. Its private placement was oversubscribed almost 11 times.
The performance is “a complete surprise, contrary to the level of subscription and demand that was supposedly received by the IPO,” said Allen Sandeep, director of research at Naeem Brokerage.
Looking more broadly, “our view is that larger-ticket IPOs, from the private side, as well as the government side, could get pushed to the beginning of 2019,” he said. — Bloomberg